Farah's eyes darted up and down Mara's figure, steadily looking for any concealed weapons while studying her body language. She was so casual, Farah couldn't tell if she was telling the truth or immensely good at concealing a lie.
Apologizing for past behavior? What does she mean? the woman wondered in her mind. Out loud, she asked, "What kind of questions?"
Her eyes narrowed slightly at the villain's sly smile. "It depends on what the other room looks like."
Mara snickered and she watched the girl look her over and she looked down at the ground still keeping her eyes on Farah. "Ya know.. If you wanted to check me out you could have done it while I was wearing something that complimented me more.. " the girl almost couldn't contain her laughter, she quickly cleared her throat and straitened her posture.
Mara looked at the girl a little confused. "I could always keep you in that room if you would prefer it, but then we wouldn't have a reason to walk around-"
Farah immediately blushed at Mara’s comments, and only then did she put together what it looked like she’d been doing. “That’s not— No, I… I wasn’t—“ the hero stammered, unable to get a clear response out, much to her own dismay. She eventually looked at the wall and said, “That isn’t what I was doing.”
Her eyebrows arched a moment. Did Maya really think she was that gullible? This woman had caused so much pain and anguish over the years for so many civilians. And all of a sudden she was being nice? It didn’t make sense to Farah. “I just need to make sure this new room isn’t some kind of torture chamber.”
Mara smirked "oh it isn't? Your blushing an awful lot to be innocent of such an accusation, Ethier way we must be going so let's hurry I'd rather not wake the others here with our banter."
She made her way over to the metal door that left the ball and opened it quietly waving Farah over so they could exit. They would have their discussion on the way to farah's new room, and according to Mara's thoughts Farah would have more questions once they got there.
"You have my word it isn't a torture chamber, believe it or not I don't have any.. I've never needed them I don't think I ever will," she had already stepped out the door and looked at Farah with yet another smirk "but do let me know if that's something you're interested in having in your room. " she said with a wink, slightly joking but it wasn't easy to tell.
Farah's eyes narrowed at Mara's smirk and comments. "Get over yourself," she snapped back, finding her words again. "I wasn't looking at you."
Still, she headed for the door and followed Mara out into the hall. The hero could only hope this wasn't some elaborate plan to get her comfortable and then have her killed.
"And do you consider your word to mean much?" Farah quipped, ignoring the winks as best she could. "How about a bed that's not bolted to the wall and a mattress that isn't so thin I can feel the bars underneath it when I lie down?"
"Are you sure? You were looking at something.." There was a small giggle at the end of her sentence and she shook her head again. She moved over to the door once again to latch it and then began walking taking a left away from the holding area.
"Trust me.. This place is great, it's almost like a little apartment, well, mother-in-law Suite more than an apartment, but either way it's comfortable I promise, but I did want to talk about your time with the scientists that worked on you, would you be open to that? "
Farah gritted her teeth to avoid saying anything else in reply. Instead, she resigned herself to following Mara and glancing around every so often to try and get her bearings.
She couldn't help the confused expression that appeared on her face as Mara described the room she was being moved to. "Why would you want to give me a suite over that cell? I thought you despised me?"
But her expression immediately became guarded again at Mara's question. She clenched her jaw and lifted her chin up a bit more. "No."
Mara kept her steps silent and they made their way through the hall, "because I'm in charge here and that's were I want to to be. " she hummed in a low tune looking Back at Farah her violet eyes glowing slightly in the dim space "I don't despise you really, just the people you work for, and I do apologize for my rudeness yesterday, I can normally control my temper but I suppose that wasn't happening. "
There was some silence after farah's response to Mara's question, the villain understood why the girl didn't want to talk about it she herself still got angry at just the thought of what they had done to her. She nodded and brought her hand up to the back of her neck and rubbed an old scar "that's fine.. We'll get there eventually.. Is there anything you would like to discuss?"
Farah became even more unsettled by the idea of staying where Mara wanted her to be. Though when the other woman's violet eyes met her brown ones, Farah heard her own breath catch softly.
"Oh," the hero murmured quietly. "I always thought it was me you hated." She smiled faintly at the apology from Mara. It was at least a start. "It's forgiven," she stated as if it were that simple.
Farah noticed the action of Mara rubbing her neck and felt a pinch of sympathy for the girl. Maybe… maybe they weren't as opposite as Farah had thought. Though she wasn't exactly ready for a therapy session in the hallway. "No," she answered again.
(Got me kicking my feet over here 😆)
"No I don't hate you, I never did. " she said with a small smile.
The rest of the walk was silent it only took about 15 minutes to get to farah's new room. Mara pulled a key card out of her pocket and unlocked the door before pushing the door open and turning towards farah and handing her the key "here, your free to come and go from your room as you please. I haven't established for you to be able to leave the property yet.. But we'll get there in time, you can always go outside though. There's a garden.. Kinda" Mara seemed embarrassed by how her "home" was. Her checks had a slight redness to them when she looked at farah, she cleared her throat and took a breath. "Well.. Um I suppose I should let you get settled in I'm sure your still tired, you should have everything you need in here and my men can give you ingredients for meals.."
(Lmaooo)
Farah studied Mara, though her gaze wasn't as hostile as it had been before. Then Farah spoke without realizing exactly what she was saying. "I can't tell if you're lying or not."
The pair descended into silence until they reached what Farah assumed would be her new room. Her eyes tracked the key card until Mara handed it to her. She blinked with confusion, then reached out and pinched it between her fingers. How was this possible? As Mara spoke, Farah picked up on her blush and the hint of embarrassment in her mind. Why was she embarrassed? This place was… spectacular. Or was she embarrassed to give it to Farah?
"I don't understand," Farah said cautiously. She spoke every word as if in a second, Mara would snatch the key back and laugh while having Farah hauled back to her old, disgusting cell. "All of this is… for me? And I'm free to leave and return as I chose? Why are you doing all of this?"
Mara smiled a little and wiggled her hand to entice Farah to take it. "This is a peace offering, it's not much right now.. Like I said your free to leave the room and roam, but there are places you can't go, like you can't walk out the front door and got to the mall or whatever, and no jumping the brick fence in the back." She added with a chuckle, she sighed and shrugged. " I just want to have a better life, and anyone who's willing, I want to give them a better life too, and it starts with you farah."
Farah's demeanor softened at Mara's words. "Oh… alright… thank you, Mara," she murmured quietly. She smiled faintly back and took the key from Mara's fingers. While she was confused and especially wary of this new room, it was certainly better than her old one, and she didn't want to deny it.
She took a few steps in and inhaled firmly before beginning to look around.
(If you want to get to… what I know you want to get to lmao… we could do a mini timeskip. Say about a week? That way Farah could be comfortable and more used to Mara.)
( well I don't want to instantly jump into that I want to gradually get there so we can do as time skip to the point where they're gradually getting to that point but I again don't want to jump instantly to that because I feel like it's too soon 😅)
Mara smiled as she watched farah step into the room. "Well.. I'm going to leave you too it, get some rest make yourself at home, you shouldn't need anything for food but if you do just let one of my men know and they'll get you whatever you need within reason. " Mara started to take a few steps back her heart beating rappedly for some reason, she turned around and started to make her way down the way they had come from.
(Okay, I’m good with whenever you decide to start going with it lol)
Farah listened as Mara spoke while also curiously observing her new living space. Of course her needs would be within reason. She was here if her own accord. She’d surrendered to the villain, who… wasn’t acting very villainous at the moment.
Farah turned to speak to Mara again, but the girl was already gone. Though Farah did feel a mixture of complex emotions emanating from her as she hurried off down the hallway.
(I'm thinking we do the time skip now but like have them do the light fluffy stuff at first?)
(That sounds good to me! Whatever floats your boat lmao)
(How'd you wanna do it? I could try to make a time skip, but I'm horrible at them lol.)
(You could just do to the next significant moment Farah and Mara interact.)
(Alright that sounds good, I'll start on that as soon as possible)
(Okay! :))
About a week later after Mara had shown the hero to her new room she had one of her men bring a letter to farah's room telling her to meet her on the roof that she had something she wanted to show her, Mara hadn't come see farah since the last night they spoke. She was sitting up on the ledge of the roof sitting sideways with her knees up to her chest and her back against a wall, on another part of the building, the wind was blowing her hair around her face framing it gently as she looked over the city that seemed to be quite a few miles away.
(It's short but it's something 😭)
(You’re good! I’m fine about length ❤️)
Needless to say, Farah was surprised to receive the letter from Mara asking her to come to the roof. “To show me something?” she murmured to herself. “How does she know I won’t just jump off when I have the chance?”
Still, Farah’s curiosity got the better of her, and she was on her way to the ladder in a heartbeat. Her steps up the ladder were swift and sure, and just as she stepped onto the roof, a gentle breeze ran through her hair. Not expecting a surprise like this, Farah had left it down. It flowed all the way down her back even though she had braided a bit to keep it away from her face.
Her eyes locked on Mara, and she approached the other girl with the letter in her fingers. “Something you wanted to show me?” she asked without the usual hostility in her tone.
Mara didn't look over at Farah until he felt her presence and heard her voice. She looked up a the and her cheeks flushed a bit and she brushed her hair out of her face. " yeah, I've been coming up here every now and then, I wanted to show you the view of the city, to me it feels more relaxing looking at then being there. Don't you agree? " she asked looking back over at Farah and motioning for her to sit down.
Farah watched a rosy blush paint Mara’s face, and she couldn’t help the surprise she felt. She knew the other girl wasn’t blushing because of the cold since it had only just happened when… when Farah spoke to her.
Slowly, Farah inhaled and sat down beside the girl with enough space between them that they weren’t touching. “Yes,” she agreed. “I never truly did like the city. It’s too crowded and noisy. My abilities overstimulate easily, which is hard to manage in a place like that.”
She inclined her head toward Mara, her eyes and expression soft after she’d just shared her vulnerability. “Mara… why did you really want me to meet you up here? I haven’t seen you in days, since you left me in my new room, and now this, out of the blue?”